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hokies220 Ballot for 2016 Week 5

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 25, 2016, 2:36 a.m.

Overall Rationale: The top 13 were easy enough to figure out and the top 9 can mostly be placed in varying orders. I did drop OSU some for bye week while others played. 14-24 were more difficult to try and place. ASU gets the nod at 25 over VT, Iowa, Memphis, Toledo, and TCU. Bonus shout out to Wake Forest, Minnesota, and Kansas State. Just letting y'all know I am watching y'all.

Rank Team Reason
1 Louisville Cardinals Easy case to be #1 right now. To me, they are currently to most dominant and scary team. But here comes the trip to Death Valley.
2 Alabama Crimson Tide Aside from the A&M and Tennessee games I don't see them sweating much this year. 
3 Michigan Wolverines Comeback win over Colorado looks more impressive now. Destroyed Penn State. Firing on all cylinders.
4 Texas A&M Aggies Win against UCLA is good. Win against Arkansas is great. Win at Auburn is decent. The Aggies are playing extremely well and have a good string of wins right now. Can't stress the 'right now' part enough. 
5 Ohio State Buckeyes Maybe unfair to drop on a bye week, but when Michigan destroys a team and the Aggies beat a team I still have ranked it's justified.
6 Wisconsin Badgers Georgia State game was just a hoax I guess. Damn they destroyed MSU on the road. Huge huge huge match-up now against Michigan.
7 Houston Cougars Unfair to drop after blowing out Texas State I know, but the OU win is slightly devalued since they're 1-2 still and OSU beat them worse. Cincy isn't looking too hot either. I'd say they still control their own destiny with Louisville and Memphis still on the schedule. Also, revenge time against UConn coming up.
8 Stanford Cardinal They did win in regulation and not OT like some fans have pointed out as a comparison to TAMU. But the USC and BYU wins took hits. Still a nice win against K-State and UCLA though. Can they beat Washington on the road?
9 Clemson Tigers At halftime I thought 'hey finally a complete game from Clemson.' Second half had some question marks but still a dominant road win and they're 4-0. Also a huuuuuge game this weekend against Louisville.
10 Tennessee Volunteers Finally finally finally after eleven years they beat the Gators. Can they take out the reeling Dawgs? I'm thinking yes.
11 Washington Huskies Not surprised to see them go to OT in their first test of the season in a place they don't typically play well at. Found a way to win though and whoever wins Friday in their game against Stanford is firmly in the divisional driver's seat.
12 Nebraska Cornhuskers I actually had them jump from 15 to 9 after the Oregon win. That win took a slight hit, but dropping them was also due to other teams playing better opponents this week. Sorry, Huskers.
13 Florida State Seminoles Great bounce back win against a very solid USF team. Cook was unstoppable. Tough test against the UNC offense coming up though. I'm expecting another shoot-out.
14 Boise State Broncos Probably too high on the Broncos because the Beavs defense is terrible, but Boise did look downright impressive. McNichols is the real deal. The way the schedule shapes up they should be 11-0 going into the final game @ Air Force. Should being the operative word.
15 Baylor Bears I almost feel like the current Big 12 frontrunner is a little too high at 15. Which says all you need to know about how well the conference has done this year. Still a nice win at home against OK State though. Defense only allowed 24 points and had a huge fumble recovery on their own 1.
16 Utah Utes Their strength of schedule isn't the best thus far, but hot damn what a game winning drive against USC. If Utah has finally figured out how to work a consistent offense then they should easily be the divisional favorites.
17 Colorado Buffaloes Well except maybe Colorado. Yes you heard that right. I've been, admittedly, high on the Buffs all year but they absolutely proved themselves by winning @ Autzen Saturday. The offense even without Sefo looked fantastic, minus some INT's but freshman QB so.. The Buffs are 1-0 in conference play and have the struggling Beavers up next.
18 Ole Miss Rebels I'll admit I didn't think Ole Miss deserved to be ranked at 1-2 last week and hadn't had them ranked since preseason. But holy shit they murdered Georgia. Georgia's not great, but still. Memphis up next and I gotta imagine this year is not a repeat of last year.
19 San Diego State Aztecs Actually bumped up a spot on bye week. Mainly because ranking these lower 10ish teams is hard.
20 Western Michigan Broncos Solid win over what should be a solid GSU team. I'm all about rowing that boat and am sold on PJ Fleck. Tough rivalry game against a good CMU team.
21 Arkansas Razorbacks TCU win looks great still at least. Don't know if they'll fall apart now after a loss or not, but they really really really shouldn't this week at least.
22 Miami Hurricanes Dropped a lot after being able to rank teams a little more appropriately this week. I had them way too high for not having played anyone yet. Should have a better idea after the GT game.
23 North Carolina Tar Heels Unbelievable QB play in the win against pitt. Probably my favorite game of the whole week. Well second favorite. Can Switzer be sent to the NFL early now though? Before the 8th? Please?
24 West Virginia Mountaineers It wasn't pretty but they won. Undefeated record, albeit not the most impressive, gets them here. Tough game against a certain wizard up next.
25 Arizona State Sun Devils Holy offense batman. Who needs a defense when you can come from behind or throw 50+ on the scoreboard? I really went back and forth trying to decide between ASU, VT, or (believe it or not) Wake for this spot. Had to give credit to ASU for having the better wins than VT IMO and I guess I just am having trouble believing Wake is 4-0.

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